Wow, I have never encountered a really rude cast member until today

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I'm sorry you had a poor experience. In all of our experiences at Disney, we have had many MANY wonderful interactions with cast members, and only one that was rude. It was on our last trip and I honestly couldn't believe we were being yelled at the way we were. It was me and my husband and two small kids. We were in line for Test Track and the CM was being quite unclear with her instructions, we misunderstood, and so she yelled the same thing over and over right in our faces (we were apparently not standing on the numbers she wanted us to - it was an honest mistake, and we'd have been happy to oblige if she'd just have clarified what she needed us to do, but she just kept yelling the same unclear instructions over and over). We were honestly just shocked, confused and embarrassed. At first I really wanted to file a complaint but in the end decided not to. Everybody has bad days and while I do think someone should address that kind of aggressiveness in a CM, I also didn't want to get her fired or anything. You never know what someone else is going though.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I am sorry this CM swore at you ~ that should never happen. And I understand how stressful these situations can be and how a crying toddler can compound this stress!. BUT your story is nothing like OP's. A CM told you (TWICE before losing his temper the third time) that you could not stand in a specific area near a security checkpoint and asked you to move, then you continued to argue with them. If it's security thing, it's a security thing...they don't have to explain why. It sounds to me like you escalated this. Again, it is unacceptable for a CM to swear at a guest, especially in front of children. The right thing for the CM to do would probably have been to call over trained security guards at that point and let them handle it; dealing with a guest who has been told several times to move away from a security checkpoint and refuses to do so is above any regular CM's paygrade.

I agree that I did escalate it. But asking a question is the most minimal escalation possible (and IMO, not inappropriate; but I acknowledge that reasonable minds can disagree on that). So if you want to be critical of how I handled the situation, that's fine. But at least don't embellish my words. First, I was not near a security check point. I was approximately fifteen feet from it (that's why I was incredulous when he told me to move). Second, the person was the trained security wearing a security uniform (not PD, but the security that DS calls in initially when there is a situation; not the "security" that used to walk around DS giving out fake "tickets"). They were even wearing a vest, which I have only seen the trained security at DS wear in the past and was standing next to another guard with the K9 unit. Third, he did not tell me to move away several times. Actually, he only asked me twice to move to a specific area (the first time he only said I could not stand there). But regardless of an employee's "paygrade", what language they use, or whether you believe my asking a question escalated the situation, I don't think any of those facts warrant physically threatening any guest (let alone a disabled one). If a guest actually does something to warrant a physical confrontation, then its time to either detain them or call law enforcement. That didn't happen in my incident. He was just apparently frustrated and angry at me and decided to try and frighten me rather than interact with me using his words.

And I wasn't stating that my incident was the same as the OP's incident. I was just offering another example of how sometimes an employee acts inappropriately, but that doesn't always mean that their behavior is habitual. It could just be an isolated, unfortunate incident that can be corrected going forward.

 

[disney-inspired]

Oooof, if that happened to me I would have stepped to her right quick. I will not have myself or anyone I'm with be yelled at like that. There wouldn't be any raised voices but it would be stern.

 

[Ashlotte]

When leaving the Storybook Boats at DLR once, I had a CM point at an empty bag left behind in the boat and ask in a shaming way if I was going to "pick up my trash." It wasn't mine and I hadn't seen it, but I didn't appreciate the way he said it at all. He said it so rudely, when he could have asked if I minded grabbing that on my way out and it would have accomplished the same thing (getting a guest to clear the boat).

 

[Aimeedyan]

The fact that others CM's encouraged you to send a complaint makes me wonder if they have already raised concerns, perhaps both with the CM and their supervisors, and nothing had changed. We have all worked with someone who hated their job and it's frustrating for the whole team. I'm glad you followed their suggestion and did just that. If nothing else, it may have helped their "argument" in getting a change made.

 

[Pyxie]

Outside of a couple times I could tell CM's were tired and not their usual happy selves right after covid, I have only ever had one truly bad experience with a CM. On our trip last year, my DH was using a scooter due to some issues he was having with his foot. This was a temporary problem that was preventing him from walking long distances and he wasn't completely used to the scooter yet, especially parking it on the busses. Most of the bus drivers were extremely nice and patient in explaining what he needed to do, but one yelled at him and got very rude and frustrated over waiting for him to park it. I understand they don't want one guest holding up an entire bus, but it wasn't like he was taking an unreasonable amount of time to board. She started getting impatient almost instantly and was barking orders at him like she was a drill sergeant. It was the one and only time we've ever had to fill out a complaint.

 

[LRdismom]

I can only recall one encounter with a rude CM. We had just enjoyed an expensive dinner at Flying Fish and needed to get back to our resort. At the time, I thought walking to HS and taking our resort bus from there was my best option. We had a delightful stroll to HS and a security guard out front asked us where we were going in a very aggressive and accusatory manner. It's almost as if he thought I was trying to sneak into HS. It immediately brought our mood down and like others have mentioned, I almost started to get shaky. I told him that we just finished dinner and where trying to catch our resort bus. He tried to change his tone a little, but wasn't friendly at all and never once smiled. He then instructed us to take the Magic Kingdom bus and then catch our resort bus from there since the resort buses had just stopped running from HS. I really don't know what his problem was.

 

[Beer Me]

The fact that these rare occurrences stand out in this way is testament to just how good Disney Cast Members really are. I applaud them for what they do and what they have to put up with (I've seen way more rude guests than CMs). Humans will have bad days, like the one you describe. We've experienced the odd bad CM experience as well (a boat captain stands out and one that grabbed our daughter at age 8, for which I did report them and they were reprimanded). But those cases are very rare for us. Even in these days of heightened crabbiness I still find CMs to doing their best to be magical. I appreciate that, because I know it's hard at times to keep smiling Everyone can have a bad day now and then...

I agree it is jarring to encounter an out-of-sorts cast member. It doesn’t happen often.

One minor incident that always bothered me. I know people hate when groups of teens chant and clap but in this case it was a groups of 4 in line for jungle cruise. I overheard one say it was his birthday which surprised his friends. They wished him happy birthday and started to sing a song. Not loudly at all in fact it was obvious they were trying to be quiet and low key (fwiw all of this in Spanish). The CM heard them and went ballistic screeching “stop it now! No singing in line!” The whole queue got quiet and the kids looked mortified. Went from all smiles and happiness to hurt and confused. It was so out of place and really dampened the mood.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I agree it is jarring to encounter an out-of-sorts cast member. It doesn’t happen often.

One minor incident that always bothered me. I know people hate when groups of teens chant and clap but in this case it was a groups of 4 in line for jungle cruise. I overheard one say it was his birthday which surprised his friends. They wished him happy birthday and started to sing a song. Not loudly at all in fact it was obvious they were trying to be quiet and low key (fwiw all of this in Spanish). The CM heard them and went ballistic screeching “stop it now! No singing in line!” The whole queue got quiet and the kids looked mortified. Went from all smiles and happiness to hurt and confused. It was so out of place and really dampened the mood.

That is so absurd, I would have laughed if I were there. A place built on animated movies full of songs, playing music and songs around every corner, doesn't want its guests to sing

 

[DisneyFive]

Yeah, pretty much the worst place to have a disgruntled cast member! Manager should have pulled her aside and had a talk with her at the very least explaining it's not acceptable.

It's a pixie dust black hole!

Terrible place for a large number of guests to have a bad first impression. Imagine if this was your very first visit to a Disney park.

 

[DCLMP]

I’ve learned in this (fortunately very rare) type of incident to just roll my eyes, let them enjoy their little power-trip, try to not let it upset me, and then go off and have fun.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[DawnM]

The fact that others CM's encouraged you to send a complaint makes me wonder if they have already raised concerns, perhaps both with the CM and their supervisors, and nothing had changed. We have all worked with someone who hated their job and it's frustrating for the whole team. I'm glad you followed their suggestion and did just that. If nothing else, it may have helped their "argument" in getting a change made.

That is what I was thinking. The supervisor didn't even seem that shocked. I think this CM is not nice all the way around. Some people just just not be working with the public.

 

[DawnM]

Yeah, pretty much the worst place to have a disgruntled cast member! Manager should have pulled her aside and had a talk with her at the very least explaining it's not acceptable.

It's a pixie dust black hole!

Terrible place for a large number of guests to have a bad first impression. Imagine if this was your very first visit to a Disney park.

When I looked back, she was no longer there, so they removed her from that location at least.

 

[kdka421]

The only rude people we have dealt with has been security. The security at MK and Disney springs has been extremely rude every time we have interacted with them at all.

It weirdly does seem like a lot of these negative experiences have been with security.
We'd agree - prior to our trip this year, our last trip was in 2019, and that trip my husband carried a pretty extensive first aid kit with him into the parks. "Better safe than sorry", with two toddlers, and he didn't attempt to bring anything against disney's policies. He had more than one security guard give him a VERY hard time about this, tell him he should just trust Disney's first aid/CMs, question why he was bringing it, and one even gave him a hard time when he was literally using said first aid supplies to take care of one of our kids' scraped knee. It really left a sour taste in his mouth that they were basically ridiculing him for wanting to take care of our kids.

 

[DisneyFive]

It weirdly does seem like a lot of these negative experiences have been with security.
We'd agree - prior to our trip this year, our last trip was in 2019, and that trip my husband carried a pretty extensive first aid kit with him into the parks. "Better safe than sorry", with two toddlers, and he didn't attempt to bring anything against disney's policies. He had more than one security guard give him a VERY hard time about this, tell him he should just trust Disney's first aid/CMs, question why he was bringing it, and one even gave him a hard time when he was literally using said first aid supplies to take care of one of our kids' scraped knee. It really left a sour taste in his mouth that they were basically ridiculing him for wanting to take care of our kids.

Not discounting your experience at all, but when I think about tapping into a park I think security on average the most fun and happy ones there, especially at bag check. They crack jokes and make nice small talk while rifling through your bag(s) Never had a bad experience, but not I probably just jinxed us.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

As a former CM, I can honestly say that there are a LOT of people working there who shouldn't be working there (or working with the public in any capacity). If you're not going to get into the job, you have no business being there.

 

[kdka421]

Not discounting your experience at all, but when I think about tapping into a park I think security on average the most fun and happy ones there, especially at bag check. They crack jokes and make nice small talk while rifling through your bag(s) Never had a bad experience, but not I probably just jinxed us.

Oh I certainly don't mean to imply that they're all bad eggs, not at all, we've had plenty of good experiences with security and front gate employees too.

It is probably heavily just coincidence - to get into the parks we all go through security so we're bound to amass some negative stories with those CMs.

 

[Marthasor]

It weirdly does seem like a lot of these negative experiences have been with security.
We'd agree - prior to our trip this year, our last trip was in 2019, and that trip my husband carried a pretty extensive first aid kit with him into the parks. "Better safe than sorry", with two toddlers, and he didn't attempt to bring anything against disney's policies. He had more than one security guard give him a VERY hard time about this, tell him he should just trust Disney's first aid/CMs, question why he was bringing it, and one even gave him a hard time when he was literally using said first aid supplies to take care of one of our kids' scraped knee. It really left a sour taste in his mouth that they were basically ridiculing him for wanting to take care of our kids.

I've been to WDW at least 75 times and have had very few bad encounters with CMs - that being said, you bring up an interesting point. My two bad experiences were with entrance staff - CMs who just really seemed to want to yell at guests for some reason. I was once yelled at for trying to enter MK at a spot another CM specifically told me to go to and once for using the passholder entrance at AK as a passholder . . . ?

 

[KPeterso]

In many visits, only bad cast member experience, but boy was it a doozy. We were waiting for a bus back to Wilderness Lodge from Disney Springs. It was downpouring badly at the time. There were 2-3 bus drivers actually waiting by us for bus shift changes. So a bus pulls up to our stop for WL and it says WL and FW. The 2-3 other drivers all say, there is your bus and even help my Mom to get her scooter loaded in the downpour. We arrive at Fort Wilderness and are the only family not to get off the bus. The driver comes back and says let's get you off and we said, no, we are going to WL. He starts yelling that we got on the wrong bus and that the DS route only goes to FW and not to WL. I said his marquee said differently and he argued with me, but did concede that he pulled up to the WL stop because the FW at DS was occupied. He did finally go look at the marquee and agreed it did state both resorts, but apparently, I should have known that it was incorrect. And remember 2-3 drivers had been there and noted it was our bus too. He then told us we were getting off the bus no matter what and we can do it with or without the scooter. So, we disembarked with the scooter and then had to ask for help from other drivers at FW about how to get back to WL. We finally had a driver who had us get on his internal bus and then radioed the dispatch that he would be taking us over to WL as it was still downpouring. We got back to WL and I told my Mom to go to the room to change and warm up while I went to the desk to have a chat. The CM (and his manager when he called her over) were beyond horrified and told me that he should have owned up the mistake and just brought us over to WL. They also filed it with the transportation department where a very high up person called me back for my details and to further discuss. They were going to be doing some re-training for that driver.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

It has been my experience that Disney is no different than most other employers in the customer service industry. 95 percent of the employees are there because they believe in what they are doing and the other 5 percent are the reason we are having this discussion.

Pre COVID, imho, Disney washed that 5 percent out to about 1 percent pretty quickly.

Post COVID, again imho, Disney simply can’t get enough warm bodies to wash those 5 percent out before they’re a problem ….

That lead us to where we are today